Cash Game 1-2 NL: How many 5's? (1 Viewer)

[JustinInMN]

Most people that play in casino would rather play in a home game of the same stakes. Casino rake is usually pretty high outside of Vegas. I can play at the casino anytime but it is a last resort.

Indeed, and I just signed up for a local meetup group for poker so we'll see if games of similar stakes come up. But Canterbury is a popular destination among my poker friends, so I don't see a need to compete. Rake is a little high here, 10% up to $5 + $1 Jackpot. But I also was in Chicagoland two summers ago and they're dropping $7+1 there, good lord.

If you do want to play higher stakes get to know some of the dealers. They usually can’t play in the casino they work at so they know the good home games and players to recruit.

Not the case here. In fact, dealers here can play on the clock as props if there's a shortage of games.

 

[Jambine]

The following opinion will not be popular here, but honestly:

For a 1/2 game that's usually 8 players, 300 5s is ample... and 300 is not a problem with 10 players.

That has been my travel set for years. Actually, 350 $5's because that's how many I have.
Never had a problem and only rarely had a black chip in the game. The travel set is 900 chips:
400 ea. $1
350 ea. $5
120 ea. $25
30 ea. $100

 

[illudene]

I agree with this, and to push it just a bit further, have been able to make 1/2 work with 2 racks of 5s. My cash set is currently:

200 x 1s
200 x 5s
200 x 25s
60 100s

Been able to make it work for 8 player 1/2 (with occasional 2/5 games also). For 1/2, start off with 25/20/3 stacks, leaving 40 reds. Next buy-in gets the last 40 reds, and after that the greens come on. It also makes accounting for each rebut a whole lot easier since the host only has to distribute greens afterwards.

Maybe it’s just my players, but they seem happy with greens to start (someone told me that they liked the variety, and the table is ok with people buying barrels from someone else when they rebuy) and smaller stacks to reduce clutter on the table.

The following opinion will not be popular here, but honestly:

For a 1/2 game that's usually 8 players, 300 5s is ample... and 300 is not a problem with 10 players.

First ten buy-ins get a barrel, that's 200 chips on the table.
Next five get a barrel... that means 100 more chips came on for the losers, but it also means that the winners at the table have 100 extra chips (and they started with full barrels.)
Next buy-in gets 20s or 25s... but it's dead easy to buy someone else's barrel of chips, because there will likely be five people with two barrels, or else a couple people lots of barrels.

Also, my crews like to see the 25s in play sooner rather than later at the dollar game... I played a long-time dollar game with 160 redbirds where we typically got 8 players... every time more green came on the table, it was a celebration, and everybody wanted the greens. (But none of them were chippers.)

 

[bivey]

I personally think 400 is fine, but when rebuys get heavy, I know a few guys who don’t quit until they have 1200 5s! (Yes, you degenerate souls know who you are!)

Aesthetics are also an issue to some as well. In this regard, I find 800 to be a wonderful number which looks fantastic and will meet the needs of 99.9% of games.

Costs usually rule the day, however. This is especially true when it comes to customs. 300 minimum but 400 works better!

Now, whatever you do, don’t start big limit games!